Did frisco ever have any narrow gauge equipment? I was wondering because of that train in Silver Dollar City.
That was an "amusement park" train with no protoype heritage whatsoever. Some believe the Frisco made a donation to the park when the train ride was installed and the park likely named the train as a courtesy or a thank you.
All locomotives of the Silver Dollar line are 2-Foot gauge German imports. i got the story of the Frisco donation twice in my life. First from a conductor on the train. Second from a post somewhere on this very website. An item of intrest though is a standard guage MOPAC caboose put of the train tracks left in MOPAC colors. I dont remember the road # but it is in good shape and is in use as an actors cabin. Ship it on the (Standard Gauge)Frisco!!!! Murphy Millican
During the administration of Benjamin F. Yoakum (1903-1913), the Frisco bought and built a number of properties in OK, AR and TX. One of the Texas properties was the 22.5 mile Rio Grande Railway,a narrow gauge railroad.(Source- Texas Almanac-1910) The Frisco never got around to re-gauging it. Many of the Texas properties , including what would later become the immensely valuable MOPAC Gulf Coast Lines,were spun off when the Frisco went into receivership in 1913.
One of the SDC engines is not of German origin: the first one, now no longer operating, is an 0-4-0 Davenport. She has recently been repainted and is slated to go back on display in the near future.
As I recall, the Roadmaster between Springfield & Monett, E. V. BUSTER sent a foreman and his crew down and back daily to assist with building the tracks. The foreman usually was referred to as "Boat" (short for his last name, maybe Boatwright?) Roadmaster E. V. Buster is engraved on the dedication plaque for engine #4523. The foreman was definitely from the old school. I was operating a Cat tractor and his men were using "Hitler Axes" to cut out a fence row on a hot day. I offered to bulldoze out the fence row but Boat something like "These guys hired out to work and that is what they are going to do." I rested my case. Joe
Thats right, Joe the Foreman, in Springfield yard was Earl Boatwright. Pretty sure he retired before I had the whiskers to hold Springfield. Heard lots of stories, he was a real hard nose. I recall the name Buster also. I was trying to think, Silver Dollar Railroad was built maybe when? 67 not sure?
The rail on the Silver Dollar Line is very light stuff. As I understand it, the Herschends bought the Davenport, the original passenger car, and a stack of rails and ties (with various accouterments) in 1962 from an amusement park that went under in New York. Source: Peterson, Jan. 50 Years of Making Memories. Springfield, MO: JEC Publishing, 2010. Print.
